Embodiments described herein relate generally to orthogonal cross connects, and more particularly, to methods of improved placement of switch fabric cards in a chassis with orthogonal cross-connects.
Some known high bandwidth systems include a set of line cards or the like that are arranged in an orthogonal many-to-many connectivity configuration as part of a cross-connect system or a switch-fabric. In such systems, a set of connectors of a line card are operatively coupled to corresponding connectors of a switch-fabric card that is orthogonal to the line card. Such systems allow for high speed transmission and high speed switching of data units. In some instances, however, the orthogonal configuration results in relatively large line cards and/or switch-fabric cards (or a similar electronic device having a printed circuit board (PCB)) because of the square matrix formed by the array of connectors. In some instances, in an effort to reduce the size of the line cards and/or switch-fabric cards, the connectors of each line card and/or switch-fabric cards included in the cross-connect system are arranged with a relatively tight spacing. Such arrangements can lead to challenges in cooling the line cards and/or switch-fabric cards of the cross-connect system as well as providing sufficient ventilation for the removal of heated air (e.g., heated by the electronics of the line cards).
In some instances, scaling (e.g., building chassis using a different number of similar line cards and/or switch-fabric cards) of such known systems can result in compute components on each line card and/or switch-fabric cards being underutilized. For example, in some instances, the line cards and/or switch-fabric cards of a cross-connect system each can include a number of application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that can correspond to a number of connectors included on the line card and/or switch-fabric cards. In such instances, the reduced number of connectors, as a result of the scaling, results in the ASICs of each line card and/or switch-fabric card being underutilized.
Thus, a need exists for apparatus and methods for improved placement of line cards and/or switch-fabric cards in a chassis with orthogonal cross-connects.